What another incredible week we have had in Room 16! We had an amazing time on our last National Geographic Live field study and enjoyed listening to Cristina Mittermeier, a marine biologist. Cristina shared so many engaging stories about marine life and reminded us to be mindful of our actions and human impacts on our environment.
We made human sundials this week! Students spent time outdoors, tracking our shadows, recording data and making observations to help us track the sun's light. We will complete our experiment next week and draw conclusions to our question, "Is day-light savings time really necessary in our city?" We also continued to work on our Natural Disasters project and conducting research on our topics. Students have been given the choice to work either in a small group (2-3 students) or alone for this project. Students have been given a rubric which outlines the project requirements and will need to present their information in a visual format. Ask your child to tell you more about our exciting project! Students were presented with a challenging 3-Act Math task this week involving capacity. We are learning how to measure the capacity of an object (cubic units) and this also includes measuring liquids! Important reminders and updates: 1) Picture day is Tuesday May 1. Wear your best smile this day! 2) Calgary Zoo field study forms and payment are due Friday May 4 3)Outdoor School for all Grade 5 students attending is from Tuesday May 8 to Friday May 11. Information packages went home earlier this week. Please carefully read this package with your child as it contains pertinent information regarding the trip. 4) May book orders due May 4 Have a great weekend everyone! Enjoy the sunshine : )
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What another amazing week so full of hands-on learning and innovative ideas!
Our time at Ralph Klein Park focused on the importance of wetlands and learned about the different types of wetlands (bogs, fens, swamps, marshes). We learned how useful and productive wetlands are for animals (in particular, invertebrates such as sideswimmers), plants and water conservation and purification. Despite the blowing snow, we spent some time outdoors as well, observing various types of plant life and even spotted some Canadian geese nesting! For more information on wetlands, click on this link: www.wetlandsalberta.ca/ Students spent some time this week further exploring our innovative ideas to help with climate change. We have some excellent ideas ranging from a compostable toilet, fully recyclable pen, and using plants as an energy source to generate power! We also spent some time outdoors helping to clean up our school field and playground, being mindful that Earth Day is this Sunday! For more information on Earth Day, please click on this link: www.earthday.org/ We are diving into the idea of daylight savings time and have explored the question, "Is Daylight Savings Time necessary in Calgary?" We started researching the earth's rotation, sun, shadows and light patterns. Students are excited to track light and shadows next week and will end our study by building sundials. Thank you so much for all the parents and family members who came out yesterday evening for Math Fair! This was a great time and so much fun was had by all! Great job parents and students who took an active role participating in all the various centres set up throughout the school! Fantastic work everyone! Our work in Math continues to focus on mathematical reasoning and problem solving. This week, we focused on a 3-Act Math task involving measurement and volume! This learning will lead us into measuring capacity next week. Learning Commons re-design is well on its way. Students have begun discussions around how to change or modify this learning space. We have created some blueprints and shared ideas around how to make this area even better for our learning. Stay tuned for more! Updates and Reminders: 1) National Geographic Live Monday April 23 (AM only). Thank you to the parents who signed up, we now have enough parent volunteers for this field study. 2) Diversity Cup practice starts on Tuesday April 24 after school (outdoors-weather pending) 3) Grade 5 visit to Ian Baz on Thursday April 26 (PM) 4) Outdoor school packages for our Grade 5's will be coming home soon (sometime next week) Have a great weekend everyone! What another super busy first week back at school we have had!
Thank you to the students who completed their homework over Spring Break. It was fantastic to hear all the innovative ideas and inventions that students came up with to help with the problem of climate change and global warming. We will spend our Genius hour time in the next coming weeks further exploring and developing these unique ideas. Great job everyone! We have been researching wetland ecosystems this week, spending sometime in our Learning Commons collecting information and data from online sources and books. Our upcoming field study on Monday to Ralph Klein Park will further support our learning in this area. Please remember to dress accordingly on Monday (as we will spend some time outside during our field study) and bring a healthy lunch and snacks. We had a fantastic presentation this morning from Earth Rangers! Students got to meet some animal ambassadors, such as an armadillo and red-tailed hawk! For more information on how you can get involved with the protection of wild animals and the environment, click on this link: www.earthrangers.com/ In Math, we reviewed our understanding of area and perimeter. We also learned how to calculate the area of irregular shapes, as often times, we are presented with shapes that may not be standard, rather shapes that are odd and irregular. Students also learned how to calculate the area of a triangle. Ask your child to share the formula we learned to do this! We will continue to build upon these skills by focusing on measuring volume and capacity in the next coming weeks. Our Math Fair is quickly approaching! Students and all family members are welcome to attend our Math Fair on Thursday April 19, from 6:00-7:00pm. Stay tuned for an invitation with more information! Important updates and reminders: 1) Field study to Ralph Klein Park on Monday April 16. Remember to pack your lunch/snacks and dress appropriately (be prepared for any kind of weather!) 2) Math Fair on Thursday April 19 from 6-7pm 3) Fun Lunch on Thursday April 19. Students who ordered a lunch will still need to pack a snack for this day 4) PD on Friday April 20 - No school 5) Field study to National Geographic Live on Monday April 23 (AM only). Field study forms will be coming home early next week. Have a lovely weekend everyone! Thank you to all our lovely parents and family members who attended Parent Teacher conferences. It was so wonderful to get this opportunity to discuss your child's growth, learning and progress this school year. I also really enjoyed seeing students share how proud they were of their learning! Great job everyone!
All students have homework over Spring break! We have continued to explore the causes and impacts of climate change. This week, we were inspired by stories from all over the world of how people are working hard to create CHANGE. We learned that people have created edible cutlery such as cups and straws--which helps reduce the amount of waste being thrown out each year. We also discussed hybrid/electric cars and just recently, the story of two local Grade 6 students who started a petition for Starbucks to create a more recyclable disposable cup! I can't wait to see what inventions our students come up and look forward to seeing their creations after Spring Break! We are in need of volunteers for our upcoming field studies to Ralph Klein Park (on April 16) and to National Geographic Live (the morning of April 23). Please contact me as soon as possible if you have CBE clearance and wish to join us on these dates. Unfortunately, our Aggie Days field study has been cancelled due to unforseen events. Have a lovely Spring break everyone! Do not forget to read everyday, work on your inventions, and learn something new! What another busy week we have had in Room 16! Here's a brief recap of our learning:
We had a special guest, Elisha visit our classroom yesterday. Elisha is an Occupational Therapist who spent some discussing self-regulation strategies using the Zones of Regulation. Students learned that there are 4 Zones (Blue Zone, Green Zone, Yellow Zone and Red Zone). Ideally, we strive to be in the Green Zone which is ready for learning, but can be in many different zones throughout the day. It is essential to recognize what zone we are in and then to come up with strategies to help us get back into Green Zone. Zones of Regulation is an important tool to help us manage and self-regulate our emotions, thus helping us to become more independent thinkers and problem solvers. This week in Math, we reviewed how to simplify fractions and equivalent fractions. We played a "partner math fractions" game and played some online Math games to help us strengthen and build on these skills. Next week, our Math work will involve measurement, beginning with standard vs. non-standard units. In Science, we are focusing on climate change and global warming. Students have taken ownership of this topic and are quite concerned about the impact and effects climate change has on us, animals and our land. We learned that human activity impacts climate change more than anything. We are continuing to explore and look deeper into this topic and come up with ways to change our behaviours. I am eager to see where this project takes us and to see how students can begin to make positive changes now and into the future! Leadership students put on an assembly today about Going Green to Be Clean! Our school has begun a new composting initiative where students are encouraged to compost any organic waste material. This will help bring the amount of garbage and waste down. Great job Leadership students! Updates/Reminders: 1) Grade 5 Ian Baz option forms are due on Monday March 19 2) Grade 5 Outdoor school forms and payment due on Tuesday March 20 3) TREC Education presentation for Grade 5's on March 20 (all day) 4) PT Conferences on Thursday March 22 (evening) and Friday March 23 (morning). 5) Spring break begins March 23-April 9. School resumes back on Tuesday April 10 Have a wonderful weekend everyone! What another amazing week! Students had the most wonderful time working with Leah and putting together the final touches on our school mural, felt sea creatures, and mini felt balls (which will be put together to form trees!). We have really enjoyed our incredible experience working with Leah and should all be proud of our hard efforts!
We had a fantastic field study on Monday at National Geographic Live. Our speaker, Bertie Gregory gave an inspirational talk about his journeys as a photographer with National Geographic. For more information about Bertie and to view more videos on his channel, check out this link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_zD4N2NqWQ Tuesday's field study to Nose Hill Park was a cold, yet wonderful and worthwhile experience! We were so fortunate to have Elder Randy Bottle come join us on this morning. Randy shared some of his knowledge about our connections to our land, animals and Mother Earth. It is important to listen with our hearts and be mindful of our choices. Randy even invited us to take part in a smudging ceremony on this special morning. This was a truly memorable experience that I hope none of us will forget! Students completed a Math assessment this week on decimals and fractions. Please ask your child to review the assessment with you as we will continue to review our work with decimals and fractions next week. We also engaged in a fun 3-Act Math task involving decimals about the Daytona 500 race. Ask your child to share their findings and learnings from this task! Our Grade 5 students did an excellent job sharing their homework about chemical reactions. Some shared about a family recipe that involved where a chemical reaction took place and a few students mixed household items together to produce chemical reactions. Great job Grade 5's! After researching and a thoughtful class debate, the zebra plant is our final choice for classroom plant! Stay tuned for our planting process! Thank you to all the Grade 5 parents who attended yesterday's Outdoor School meeting. I know that many students are eagerly anticipating this wonderful experience in May! A parent handbook will be coming home in the near future with more information about this special event. Updates and Reminders: 1) Leadership Assembly on Friday March 16 at 10:15am 2) TREC education for Grade 5's on March 20 (AM only) 3) PT Conferences March 22 (evening) and March 23 (AM only). Please remember to book a time to meet with me! 4) Last day of school before Spring Break is Thursday March 22. Students resume back to school on Tuesday April 10. Have a great weekend everyone! What another super busy week we have had! We began our amazing work with our Artist in Residence, Leah. She gave us a brief lesson on different types of wool, where wool comes from and how wool can be transformed into felt. Some students then got a chance to make little balls of felt, others created wool jellyfish and a few worked on a large wool mural. All of our final creations will be pieced together to make large Art pieces which will be displayed in our school. I am so excited to see how our art pieces will turn out!
We had a lovely presentation from Stephanie from the NLC this week. She gave us some useful information to prepare us for our upcoming field study to Nose Hill Park. We are very excited for Tuesday's trip. Please note that this is an all-day outdoors trip, so all students will need to dress appropriately. If there is inclement weather and the temperature is colder than -20 (with the windchill) the trip may be cancelled. Please remember to have your child dress in layers and not to forget their snowpants, mittens, toques, scarves, etc. Students continued to practice our decimals and fractions this week. We are learning how to correctly read a decimal (up to the thousandths) and also represent decimals concretely, pictorially and symbolically. Here a few great videos students can watch for review: www.learnalberta.ca/content/mesg/html/math6web/index.html?page=lessons&lesson=m6lessonshell01.swf www.learnalberta.ca/content/me5l/html/math5.html?goLesson=1 We conducted some fun experiments this week. We mixed a solid with another solid, a solid and a liquid and a liquid and liquid together to create various solutions and mixtures. Have your child share his/her learnings and observations from our experiments. Grade 5 students have some homework! With adult supervision, they will need to conduct an experiment where a chemical reaction takes place. They will bring in their findings to share with the class. Grade 4's also have homework! Their homework involves researching about 4 types of plants: desert gems, tallandsia, spider orchids and zebra plants. From our research, as a class we will choose the best type of out of the 4 plants to plant in our class terrarium. Updates: 1) National Geographic Live field study Monday March 5 (AM only) 2) Nose Hill Park field study all day Tuesday March 6 3) Grade 5 Outdoor School parent meeting (all Grade 5 students and parents must attend) on March 8 (evening). Outdoor School forms and payment is due on March 20. Have a warm and safe weekend everyone! What another super busy week full of interesting and creative learning! Students completing their petroglyph carvings in clay and we are patiently waiting for our creations to dry! Have your child share with your their experiences working with clay and what carving tools they used to create their unique symbols.
We had a special presentation from The Calgary Humane Society this week that focused on animals (both in the wild and domesticated). Students were treated to an informative presentation dealing with the impact that humans have on wildlife and how we can show the 3 R's to animals! What is stewardship? This word has come up many times this week and last. Students are all working hard on how to be responsible stewards by making kind and caring choices to help others, in and our around our school. Students have looked at how even small actions (such as turning off the lights and using natural sunlight) can have a huge impact on energy conservation and our environment. Have a conversation with your child on how they can show stewardship at home, school and in their community. This week in Math, we reviewed decimals and fractions. Students have been working on adding and subtracting decimals and will continue to practice our skills next week. We are also continuing to use 3 Act Math to strengthen and build our mathematical reasoning and problem solving skills. Updates and reminders: 1) National Geographic and Nose Hill Park field study forms are due on Thursday March 1. We now have enough parent volunteers for National Geographic and Nose Hill Park. Thank you wonderful parents for your support! 2) March book orders and payment due on Feb 27 3) It is not too late for parents to volunteer for our Artist in Residency work. Please complete the form sent home with available times and return back to school as soon as possible. Thank you! Have a wonderful weekend everyone! What another busy week full of learning at school! Students were given time out of their busy days to reflect on people, places and memories that matter most to them (what we hold dearly in our hearts). Then we created a beautiful Heart Art piece to represent this. We also continued to write kindness hearts for our others who we have "spotted" showing kindness in and around our school. Our Kindness Counts wall has grown to over 100 hearts and I know that this number will only continue to grow! Great job everyone!
We had a special presentation this week from Inside Education which focused on the natural resources of Alberta. We also learned how natural resources are used in our province and discussed the implications of renewable vs. non-renewable resources. Ask your child to share with you some of their learning from this informative presentation! There have been many questions about Outdoor School coming up in May. Please be aware that Outdoor School is an important part of our curriculum and learning and that all Grade 5 students are strongly encouraged to attend. There will be an upcoming meeting in March for all parents of Grade 5 students where more information regarding the trip will shared. Parents will also have the opportunity to ask questions and learn more. Stay tuned for the date and time of this meeting. Our school has the wonderful opportunity of working with an Artist in Residence, Leah Cathleen Donald in the next coming weeks. Leah is a fibre artist, who works primarily with wool and natural fibres. We are looking for a few parent volunteers who would like to help our students during this time. Please contact me if you have valid clearance and are interested in helping out. Thank you in advance. We have been discussing Canada's achievements during the Winter Olympics and have learned how Science is involved in so many Olympic sports. A great Science website to check out relating to the Olympics: science360.gov/series/Science+of+the+Winter+Olympics/b263b26f-6d34-4ddb-a77f-6d69507e0533 For more Olympic coverage, feel free to check out this link: olympics.cbc.ca/ GO CANADA GO! Important Reminders and Updates: 1) National Geographic Live forms went home today. Forms are due on March 1, 2018. We are in need of 3 parent volunteers for this morning. Please contact me if you have valid clearance and wish to volunteer. Thank you. 2) Museo Kit forms and money are past due. Please send any outstanding money and/or forms into school as soon as possible. 3) In-school Calgary Humane Society presentation on Tuesday Feb 20 (AM) 4) No school Thursday, Friday and Monday. See you all back to school on Tuesday Feb. 20! Have a wonderful long weekend everyone! Remember to show kindness, love and caring to all! Here is a recap of our learning this week:
Constable Don came to visit our classroom on Monday. We really enjoyed listening to him speak on his role as a police officer for the City of Calgary. He shared a wonderful story with us about the importance of working hard, having integrity and never giving up. Students were then asked to create their own unique "superhero" and list the inner strengths their superhero has. Then, students created a fictional story about their superheroes. Ask your child to share more! Math: We continued to review division and ended our week with a division quiz. We have explored various strategies to help us divide (repeated subtraction, drawing a picture, use multiplication and the traditional algorithm (Divide, Multiply, Subtract, Bring Down). Ask your child to share with you the strategy he/she feels most comfortable using and why. Students will be coming home with their quiz and another division assessment task today. Most students worked hard on these problems and should be proud of their hard work! Language Arts/Social Studies: We have been so fortunate enough to experience the MuseoKit on loan from the Glenbow Museum. This week, students looked at various artifacts from the past and how these artifacts were used. Next, we learned about the Famous Five women who significantly impacted women's rights today. Working together in small groups, students were asked to test their acting abilities, using real props and costumes to demonstrate some of the injustices these women faced back in the day. Bravo to all of our wonderful actors and actresses! Lastly, we finished off our work with the MuseoKit by having a class debate on "The Persons Case". Students learned the format of a debate and how to respectfully listen to the ideas of others, even when they differ from their own ideas. We even had an impartial jury decide at the end which group presented the strongest case! Our class debate was a success and we will continue to run future class debates in our classroom. Stay tuned for more! Science: Our experiments were put on hold this week, due to our extensive MuseoKit work. We will continue to explore our Chemistry and Plant Life unit and experiments next week! Updates and Reminders: 1) Inside Education will visit our classroom on Monday Feb. 12 2) No school on Feb 15 and 16 (Teacher's Convention) and Feb 19 (Family Day holiday) 3) Upcoming Field Study to National Geographic Live on March 5 (forms will be going home next week). Please contact me if you have valid CBE clearance and wish to volunteer. Thank you in advance! |